Chinese President Xi Jinping to address key reform anniversary on Tuesday

Chinese President Xi Jinping will speak at a conference to be held at the Great Hall of the People from 10am on Dec 18, 2018. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

BEIJING (REUTERS) - President Xi Jinping will make a major speech on Tuesday (Dec 18) to mark the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Mr Xi will speak at a conference to be held at the Great Hall of the People from 10am on Tuesday, Xinhua said on Sunday (Dec 16). The report was in line with what diplomatic sources had previously told Reuters.

Former leader Deng Xiaoping initiated China's historic reform and opening up in 1978, followed by a series of capitalist experiments that lifted much of China out of poverty and turned it into an economic powerhouse.

China's trade war with the United States is spurring some Chinese entrepreneurs, government advisers and think tanks to call for faster reforms in the world's second-largest economy and the freeing up of a private sector stifled by state controls.

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